Vocalist Jacqui Dankworth is as radiant as ever on As the Sun Shines Down on Me, an album of recorded in 2002 and 2003 but seeing American release in 2004 through Candid Records. Joined by virtuosic guitarist Mike Outram, her bassist brother Alec Dankworth, and percussionist Roy Dodds, Dankworth interprets 15 old faves, keeping the mood light and tasteful throughout. Opening with a reading of "Blue Moon" could be a risk – it's a well-known, perhaps even overplayed song. But the version here is so perfectly rendered, so gentle from the folky guitar line through the light brush work, that the song is reborn.

Gabriel is back with another funky contemporary jazz album, collaboration with Jeff Lorber (keys, g, b). In addition Brian Bromberg (b), Chuck Loeb (g), Rock Hendricks (sax) and Rob Tardik (g) all make guest appearances. Hasselbach plays trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone and flute. He soars, soothes and keeps the melodies crisp. They waste no time getting down to business with the opener "King James", the first of ten cuts that sizzle. Gabriel and company are energized and when you plug this one in you too will be Kissed By The Sun!

Five CD box set containing every studio recording that this American trio released during their '60s heyday and their short-lived '70s reunion plus alternatve versions, etc. Although Scott Engel, Gary Leeds and John Maus were not actually brothers, they achieved enormous success in England and Europe and are now considered to be one of the most influential musical forces of their time. The 115 songs include 'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore', 'Make It Easy On Yourself', 'There Goes My Baby', 'Doin' The Jerk', 'Everything's Gonna Be Alright' and many many more.

Whether it was the intention of Barbara Mauritz or someone on the business side of her affairs, Bring Out the Sun leaves the impression that she was being groomed for a solo career. The impression is hardly subtle or accidental: the album is co-billed to Barbara Mauritz and Lamb, and although Lamb co-founder Bob Swanson is still aboard as guitarist and (on half of the tracks) as a sole or collaborating composer, there are some songs on which he doesn't play at all. Lamb's second album, Cross Between, had a much higher proportion of gospel-oriented material than their debut, and Bring Out the Sun continues the move to contemporary gospel-rock of sorts, particularly on side one…

This live album documents the meeting of two avant-garde legends, but it is not exactly a "super duo." The curious chemistry these two share is subtler and possibly more rewarding than that. John Cage was a quotable artist. On the subject of albums, he once remarked that “records ruin the landscape.” Elsewhere, in a treatise collected in his 1961 book Silence, the composer offered some opinions about jazz. The genre “derives from serious music,” he wrote, “and when serious music derives from it, the situation becomes rather silly.” Given those harsh judgments, it makes sense to venture an opening question about Cage’s one-off appearance alongside swing-and-improv icon Sun Ra. If Cage himself thought jazz unsuited for “serious” contexts and recordings lame, why should this document of their 1986 shared bill be anything other than a curiosity?